Josh Schwartz, the dude who brought us boob tube guilty pleasures like The O.C., Gossip Girl and Chuck, took a break from writing angsty teen dialogue for mutants long enough to share his picks for the albums that defined the last decade with EW‘s Music Mix blog. It’s hard to dispute that Schwartz has been incredibly influential in music and pop culture throughout the Noughties—credit him with introducing the world to Jason Schwartzman’s other gig (we’re still bummed), and for making Death Cab For Cutie famous enough that they could eventually move on to even more soundtrack work. Heck, we kinda love him, too, for booking power acts like No Doubt and Lady Gaga on Gossip Girl — a show that spawned two of its own potential music stars (even if it only promotes one of them), so we generally approve of what he has to say. A sampling of Schwartz’s self-titled categories after the jump: More »
You already know the end of the year/decade will bring no shortage of best-of lists from perfectly nice people who still think it’s all about the Strokes or Neko Case. But the most interesting decade-in-review feature we’ve seen yet isn’t a countdown—it’s just a smart look back at the biggest hits of the decade by the whiz kids over at NPR.
For the last two weeks, the music crew that puts together NPR’s Song of the Day segment, has taken a smart look back at the best and brightest in pop smashes from the aughts – one song and one year at a time. Check out their ten picks for the songs that summed up the 00’s, complete with a brief write-up (full song-by-song analysis can be seen at the source). Apologies to those with an aversion to Britney Spears and Idol alumni: this just wasn’t your time. More »
Pitchfork’s “P2K” project completed its first installment today, with its countdown of the best singles released between 2000 and “sometime in mid-2009” revealing its top 20. The site bequeathed its “No. 1 single of the decade” title on OutKast’s “B.O.B.”—which, as it turns out, was also No. 1 for the site’s best of 2000-2004 list from a few years back. I actually don’t have a problem with either the pick or the implied classic-rock consistency; the messy chaos of “B.O.B.,” which splatted all over the genre map when it came out at the beginning of this decade, was and remains, as the ‘Fork’s Stuart Berman writes, “a future-shocked ferocity… that just cannot be duplicated.” But it made me wonder about how well the songs from the first part of the decade had aged in the minds of writers—and, by extension, the minds of people who love arguing over every proclamation Pitchfork makes. Let’s get counting down! More »
Tomorrow I’ll be tripping down to Philadelphia to attend The Roots Picnic, an all-day affair masterminded by Jimmy Fallon’s sidemen (haha, jk guys) and featuring two sets by the band; TV On The Radio, Santigold, and Antibalas are also on the bill. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the day’s festivities will be the start-to-finish performance of Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back–yes, they’ve done it before, but this time, the musical duties will be handled by the Roots and Antibalas. This and the impending relaunch of Unplugged have made me wonder: What albums most deserve a live re-imagining, whether it’s the transformation of samples into band arrangements or the classic Unplugged treatment? I’ve actually been mulling over this question all day, and can’t think of anything off the top of my head–unless Freestyle’s Greatest Beats, Volume One counts. (It should!) After the jump, a few musical experts offer their suggestions. Please feel free to expand further, and if you’re going to the picnic, come say hello! More »
Big Boi has apparently solved his dispute with Jive Records, which means that his long-in-the-works Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty may actually see the light of day. “Probably within the next week or so, there will be a big announcement coming out and the album will be out this summer–believe it, it’s done, it’s it in the can and I’m very happy with it,” he said. He also mentioned that a new OutKast album was in the very very early planning stages, and that it’s going to be “ridiculous.” [Word Of South via SOHH] More »
Phoenix has had a dance music station broadcasting over the desert air for the last six years, one of the few American radio outlets that provided Taylor Dayne with a slightly fatter royalty check each quarter. In news that was surely a real bummer to the glowstick crowd around these parts, Energy dimmed on Halloween, and Monday brought The Beat, which has a playlist devoted to classic hip-hop. Although I’m not giving up my satellite radio subscription quite yet, it was pretty great to hear these three tracks played consecutively yesterday:
Billboard reports today on a few “top rap acts” with expiring contracts and a taste for more direct streams of cash. Although Jay-Z has proven that hip-hop can venture outside the traditional record-label world, what does that mean for acts like Outkast, LL Cool J, and the always delightful 50 Cent?
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